Posts with tag: London property

Top 20 London Commuter Hotspots

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 3:57 pm

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Top 20 London Commuter Hotspots

Top 20 London Commuter Hotspots

The amount of Londoners leaving the capital has reached record highs, hitting 250,000 a year according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It is believed that most of those departing are hoping for family-sized homes near good schools.

However, those moving are still searching for somewhere not too isolated within a quick commute of the capital.

The high number of people leaving London has been fuelled by the Stamp Duty reform of December 2014. Hometrack recently found that the Home Counties benefitted most from the changes.

Savills estate agent predicts that London’s commuter hotspots will see the highest medium-term price growth in England. It based its findings on the amount of season ticket sales from the main commuting stations. So where is best for London commuters?

 

 

Countdown of top 20 London commuter hotspots

No.

 Area Travel time to London Average property price Average detached house price Annual season ticket cost

Annual season ticket + travel card cost
20 Bishops Stortford 30 minutes £324,324 £501,020 £3,936 £4,952
19 Redhill 35 minutes £305,891 £553,530 £2,672 £3,432
18 Oxford 57 minutes £411,601 £746,632 £4,788 £5,568
17 Shenfield 27 minutes £363,244 £608,423 £2,868 £3,976
16 Tunbridge Wells 50 minutes £329,754 £633,575 £4,364 £5,020
15 Maidenhead 20 minutes £427,999 £673,633 £2,908 £3,692
14 Slough 17 minutes £276,270 £644,998 £2,472 £3,252
13 Basingstoke 44 minutes £234,831 £360,475 £4,188 £4,944
12 Sevenoaks 33 minutes £589,203 £945,321 £3,288 £3,944
11 Winchester 58 minutes £414,851 £623,740 £4,812 £5,636
10 Tonbridge 42 minutes £318,166 £519,513 £3,980 £4,636
9 Milton Keynes Central 35 minutes £217,162 £333,801 £4,888 £5,812
8 Colchester 52 minutes £198,456 £297,539 £4,796 £5,880
7 Haywards Heath 44 minutes £313,830 £496,040 £3,808 £4,800
6 Guildford 37 minutes £408,824 £760,593 £3,400 £4,204
5 Cambridge 52 minutes £395,911 £676,965 £4,264 £4,648
4 Woking 27 minutes £371,238 £668,269 £3,052 £3,792
3 Chelmsford 35 minutes £261,411 £417,214 £3,728 £4,704
2 Brighton 52 minutes £334,934 £617,940 £4,068 £5,196
1 Reading 26 minutes £283,724 £485,399 £4,188 £4,976

A quarter of the top 20 spots are within half an hour of London, with Reading, Woking and Shenfield benefitting from the Crossrail development.

The closest is Slough, just 17 minutes from the capital.

Buy a London Home for £100,000 in Catford

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 3:20 pm

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Prospective buyers that are priced out of Clapham and East Dulwich could look south of the river to one of the only places in London where homes can be bought for under £100,000.

Catford is the affordable area offering these properties to hopeful homeowners. It is not a picturesque place, but is due redevelopment soon, so will be a good part of the capital to invest in.

Lewisham Council is planning a regeneration of the town centre and Transport for London has pledged to improve roads here.

New housing projects include Prospect Quarter, which is being built on the site of the former Catford greyhound stadium.

On the site, housing association Peabody has 38 shared-ownership homes for sale. These will be ready to move into at the end of June 2015 and those living or working in South East London will be given priority.

An additional 22 shared-ownership properties will go on the market at the end of October.

Head of Affordable Homes at Currell, which is selling the flats, Martin Fillery, says: “It is the last bastion of really affordable homes that is close to London. It really is the one place where you can buy a home for under £100,000. I think that it has been overlooked for years, but it is a key area.”1 

Buyers will receive a 40% share of a one-bedroom flat at the site for £76,000. The full market value is £190,000. Buyers will also need to pay rent of £247 per month and an estimated monthly service charge of £150.

For a 30% share of a two-bedroom flat, buyers will pay £93,000 for a property worth £270,000. The monthly rent on these homes is £470 and a service charge of around £165 will be added each month.

Prospect Quarter forms part of Barratt London’s Catford Green scheme. It will include 589 homes by 2017 and shops in landscaped grounds near Ladywell Fields. This area has recently been given tennis courts and a café.

This development will be boosted by its transport links. Commuters can go from Catford Bridge station to Waterloo East in 18 minutes, Charing Cross in 20 minutes and Cannon Street in 22 minutes.

Travelling from Catford to Blackfriars takes 22 minutes and residents can get to St Pancras in just over half an hour.

Both stations in Catford are in Zone 3 and an annual season ticket costs £1,508.

There are proposals for expanding the Docklands Light Railway and the Bakerloo line to Catford.

Roof Terraces and Balconies Add 12% to Property’s Value

Published On: May 18, 2015 at 3:17 pm

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If you add a roof terrace or balcony to your property, you could increase its value by as much as 12%, found London estate agent Marsh & Parsons.

As summer approaches, homeowners and buyers are considering the importance of outdoor space.

Although central London homes rarely have their own garden, having a roof terrace, balcony or communal garden can still attract buyers or renters.

Roof Terraces and Balconies Add 12% to Property's Value

Roof Terraces and Balconies Add 12% to Property’s Value

Research by Marsh & Parsons revealed that a roof terrace or balcony generally adds 12% to the value of a property, increasing to 25% in Chelsea. Use of a communal garden can increase value by 11%, rising to 20% in Little Venice and Holland Park.

Associate Director and Sales Manager at Marsh & Parsons in Holland Park, David Pittman, says: “As the mercury rises, Londoners don’t want to be cooped up inside and want to be able to feel the wind in their hair. For the right buyer, a balcony or more particularly, a roof terrace, will add significant value to a property in the area.

“Some of the more petite family houses have roof terraces in place of a garden and in these cases, value will be increased by approximately 10% more than the same property without any outside space.

“Having direct access to one of W11’s wonderfully desirable communal gardens can increase a property’s value by 20% or significantly more.”1

Marsh & Parsons estimates that just under a third of flats that come onto the market have a roof terrace, balcony or communal garden, and these properties are much more appealing to buyers, attracting more interest and selling faster than the same properties with no outdoor space.

The agent also calculated that the average price per square foot of outdoor space in London is £897, surging to over double that in South Kensington at £1,925.

CEO of Marsh & Parsons, Peter Rollings, comments: “As a nation, we love our gardens and the Chelsea Flower Show has green-fingered enthusiasts across the country looking on in envy. But with outdoor space at a premium in the capital, not all properties have their own gardens, so roof terraces, balconies and communal green areas can be just as important to buyers looking to unwind in the open air.

“Vendors have long been aware of how much value traditional home improvements such as a new kitchen or bathroom can add to a property and this research may just persuade them to convert flat roofs or balconies into habitable outdoor oases.”1

1 http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/household/how-much-can-a-roof-terrace-or-balcony-add-to-the-value-of-your-property.html

London’s Housing Crisis Defined in One Statistic

Published On: May 16, 2015 at 4:08 pm

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London’s housing crisis has been summed up after it was found that seven out of ten houses on one street in Kensington are second homes.

The 300 metre-long street, Ashburn Place, in West London has 131 residential properties, of which 70% are not classed as a main home, revealed Kensington & Chelsea Council.

London's Housing Crisis Defined in One Statistic

London’s Housing Crisis Defined in One Statistic

The Council found the figures by a Freedom of Information request by The Steeple Times.

The statistic indicates that Kensington & Chelsea has the highest proportion of second homes of any densely populated area of England. The City of London and Isles of Scilly have more second homes, but are more sparse.

The City of London has a population of just 7,000, with a high concentration of offices rather than homes.

The changing population in this area has caused high-profile businesses to close recently. Companies are not getting enough custom because local residents are moving away and being replaced by second homeowners who do not constantly live there.

As a result, many areas in central London are becoming empty, with fewer permanent residents.

Ashburn Place has a considerably higher proportion of second properties than other streets in the top five. Second place is Sloane Avenue, a walk away from Ashburn Place, where four in ten houses are second homes.

The Isles of Scilly is experiencing similar problems. Low average wages and spiralling property prices due to the amount of second homes means that the wealth of some Scilly residents is equal to that of Slovakia and Slovenia.

 

 

 

London Home Earns Owners £130 an Hour

Published On: May 13, 2015 at 1:21 pm

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A terraced home in London earns its owners £130 an hour due to spiralling property prices in the last decade.

The house was bought for £3.32m in 2006 and is now on the market for £13m, making a profit of almost £10m.

The property is situated near Holland Park, Kensington, which is one of the most expensive places to buy a home in the UK. It is not far from the shops and museums in the surrounding area.

The government of the Canadian state of Quebec currently owns the home in Ilchester Place and use it for diplomats living in London. It was purchased in October 2006 and is now marketed by estate agent John D Wood & Co.

If it sold for the asking price of £13m, it will have made the state £9.68m, which works out at around £130 for every hour they have owned the house.

This property has seen the impact of the price boom in central London over the last few years. In 2014, the average home in London increased in value by 17.4%.

The prime central London housing market has also been boosted in the past week after the Conservatives’ victory in the general election. Buyers have streamed into the market with the knowledge that they will not be hit by a mansion tax.

The location of the property is also home to celebrities such as the Beckhams, Robbie Williams and Jimmy Page.

The house has eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, two cloakrooms and three storage rooms. Buyers will also enjoy the drawing room, dining room, study, breakfast room and pantry.

However, although the property has a huge price tag, new residents will need to conduct updating work, says the estate agent. Apparently the home has planning permission to increase its floor space by 30%.

The house has a garden at the front and back and boasts two patio areas.

 

 

Developers Pay £800m Less for Social Housing in London

Published On: May 13, 2015 at 9:31 am

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Developers have paid £800m less than was needed for social housing in London since 2011, found new research from market intelligence organisation Estates Gazette.

Between 2004-11, 74 social homes were built for every 100 private new builds. By 2014, this number had dropped to 40 per 100.

Estates Gazette believes that the shortfall could be down to a 60% cut in social housing funding in the last government’s 2010 spending review.

Data Editor at the group, Nadia Elghamry, says: “Historically, 75 affordable homes have been built for every 100 private units, but since the spending review in 2010 which saw a Tory-led government policy slash the housing subsidy by 60%, it has dropped substantially.

Developers Pay £800m Less for Social Housing in London

Developers Pay £800m Less for Social Housing in London

“Now just 40 social homes are built for every 100. That means at a time when starts on private homes in London have reached a two-decade high, we have seen the proportion of expected affordable housing nearly halve.

“The theory was that cash contributions paid by developers rather than physically building homes on site should have plugged this gap. They have not.”1 

For the same ratio of 2004-11 levels to be sustained, a further 17,297 social homes should have been started since 2012.

Between 2011-13, developers paid almost £467m towards provision for social units rather than actually building the homes themselves.

The Estates Gazette’s study estimates that £1.3 billion would have been needed to cover the cost of the missing homes.

This figure was calculated by assuming the cost of building a home in London is £72,500, not including the cost of land.

The money put towards social housing provision by developers is part of section 106 (S106) funding. This measure allows the proportion of homes to social housing to be exchanged for a financial contribution to the local authority where the development is being built.

Between 2004-10, 70 projects used an S106 agreement, with the money expected to go towards social units. After the coalition government’s spending review, this figure rose to 70 in 2012 and 2013, and 88 in 2014.

The Estates Gazette’s report states: “Simply put, even when assuming no land cost, S106 contributions have not been enough to mitigate the loss in either on- or off-site affordable housing provision.”1 

Chief Executive of housing charity Shelter, Campbell Robb, says: “Only clear rules on how many affordable homes must be built will turn the tide on this worrying trend. Up until 2008, there was a 50% affordable housing target for new developments in London and more genuinely affordable homes were built as a result. There’s no reason this can’t work again.

“Both the mayor and central government need to reinstate clear rules for developers on affordable house building and finally start to curb London’s drastic shortage. If they don’t, ordinary Londoners face being priced out of the city altogether.”1

1 http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/may/12/800m-shortfall-social-housing-london